Keris Surakarta today's buy.

[Pendita65]

Today's buy,

I bought this Keris from a colleague he inherited together with some other Tjikeroe knives and Golok from his deceased father in law who was stationed in Indonesia just before the war. I found this Keris appealing to me despite the relatively thin blade. (Not super thin) I don't know the Dapur and the ganja is in a form I have not seen often. The dress is relatively simple and plain and does not fit very good inside the Warangka but the ganja is of nice proportion with the curled up grening. I guess the mendak is a cage mendak from West Java if I am correct.

Who can share some more info about it. I thi k it has 7 Luk

[Sajen]

Hi Martin,

The ganja is called ganja wilut! The sarung/scabbard looks very West Javanese to my eyes. The blade is sadly very worn!

Regards,
Detlef

[Pendita65]

Hi Detlef,

Yes it's worn but it also shows history, and it has been cleaned often so for me it's also a relic of being cherished. So I cleaned the blade allready just need to stain it with warangan and I will get some lessons from someone I met lately. I learn him French polishing and he learns me to stain traditionally Keris. So in june I will start with a few cleaned Keris.

And it is not the only Keris in my collection that is worn so I am fine with it as I still can see the craftsmenship in them.
And thank you for the reply on my message.

Regards, Martin

[David]

Yes Martin, i also believe that it os worth preserving some keris even when they are very worn. I look forward to seeing this blade once it is fully cleaned and stained. I believe the wrongko can be restored to some a much nicer level as well, especially if you are skilled with French Polishing.
I find the mendhak rather interesting. Is any familiar with this form? I don't know that i have seen it before.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

I find the mendhak rather interesting. Is any familiar with this form? I don't know that i have seen it before.

Hi David,

I can't tell you more about this type of mendak, I know that this type is rather rarely seen, Alan has shown once this type in two threads, pics are attached. I also have a keris with this type, last pic.
Alan will be able to tell us more, hopefully.

Regards,
Detlef

[Pendita65]

Hi David and Detlef,

What i was told by some Dutch collectors that it is a cage mendak from West Java and pretty rare.

And I truly hope to bring back some pamor with staining. Especially I have a lot Keris cleaned allready but not yet stained.

Regards, Martin

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm a bit late to the party here, been away & very limited access to net & time.

I see this keris as a blade that might have been of some degree of quality at one time but has been largely eaten by time. The attention of a skilled m'ranggi might be able to bring some life back into it. Yeah, I know, a lot of out-of-culture keris collectors will be shocked by the idea of carrying out more than very minor surgery on an old, damaged blade.

This is not the attitude of a knowledgeable Javanese keris person. In Jawa the attitude is that we have a duty, an obligation to preserve an item of tosan aji for future generations, & this means active restoration where this is warranted.

This keris needs care & attention, not just staining.

I cannot accurately count the luk.
The visible luk come to 7, but that produces an unacceptably long distance from final luk to point, so originally this blade might have had 9 luk (current method of count).

I think that the blade is probably East Jawa, possibly Madura Sepuh. I would need it in hand to give a solid, defensible opinion.

The gayaman wrongko retains sufficient distinct characteristics to identify it as a generic gayaman that really, could come from anywhere on the Island of Jawa.

The original work does not permit a precise affixation to the Solo area of Jawa, but the overall form is perhaps possible to fit into a Gandon or Kagok Gabel or Gabel sub-classification of Central Javanese gayaman forms. It does tend towards something that might have originated in Banyumas, but I think that to give it as Banyumas might be stretching things a bit too far.

To comply with Javanese standards it should be given a complete strip, rebuild & polish. The same applies to the hilt & mendak --- but I'd tread gently with the hilt, this would need close examination under magnification before a final decision could be made.

If we accept that the Javanese people own their own culture, & that the Javanese keris is a part of that culture, I believe that we really should try, in-so-far as it is possible, to follow the Javanese line of thought when we meet up with a sad old piece of tosan aji:- bring life back into the keris and make it something that future generations will regard as worthwhile preserving.

[Pendita65]

Thank you Mr. Maisey,
the care and attention you mention would it be involving some fine filing or grinding and polishing parts of the blade? I have allready derusted the blade and not yet finished it with kitschen sink powder. but i will upload the pictures of how it looks now. The gayaman wrongko is in my opinion not the original one as it has a very poor fitting.

Hope to hear and thank you for the information.

Regards, Martin

[Pendita65]

Here the pictures I just took

[A. G. Maisey]

Not really grinding & polishing Martin, rather it would be a careful appraisal of the blade & the re-shaping of the profile & minor detail work by a master who understood exactly what could & what could not be done with it to improve it.

This is not work for an amateur.

Martin, the whole legend of blades being original to wrongkos & wrongkos being original to blades is very, very poorly understood by most collectors. Different parameters apply in different circumstances.

For your keris my approach would be to marginally recut the mouth of the wrongko to reflect the shape of the gonjo, I would cut it to be a little larger. Then I would fit a contrasting piece of wood into the re-cut mouth & glue it in place with two part epoxy, possibly tinted. I would then inlet the keris to the wrongko. As I said a complete strip, rebuild & re-polish.

Cleaning the blade before staining means that the metal MUST be white before you begin to stain, not just clean, but white. If it is not so you run a high risk of getting a yellowish or sometimes greenish tint in the final stain.

[Pendita65]

Mr. Maisey,

thank you so much for your explanation, i will first get the blade cleaner and yes i thought allready to restore the wrongko, by adding a mouth piece in it. so the keris has a good fit. I also wonder sometimes why collectors want to redress a complete ensemble by upgrading it all, Most of the time i keep the dress as it is, or restore it, but keep the original (so called) together. I think it would be difficult to find a Master to uplift the condition in the Netherlands so it might be clean the blade till white and stain it again, and accept the wear on the blade and preserve it for the future. Next step will be the wrongo and we will see how it turns out.

Regards, Martin

[A. G. Maisey]

Martin, I can understand your ideas about keeping a keris as it was found, & I also do not agree with the approach of carrying out full upgrades of dress, except where dress items have deteriorated to the point where no sympathetic restoration is possible.

However, having said that, I do think that there are a couple of cultural mores that we need to be aware of. How we approach or implement those in-culture values can be a bit challenging.

The complete keris, in dress, can be thought of as a socio-cultural icon. It can be representative of the family, & of the cosmos.

The blade itself, & some characteristics of the blade can have a religious association, & that blade has a male value, it is the blade that is thought of as having any sort of spiritual or esoteric value. The keris itself can be representative of its custodian. Only the keris itself, ie, the blade.

The wrongko, hilt, pendok, mendak have no value at all, except their monetary value, even though that monetary value might be very high indeed.

As it was put to me by Empu Suparman, the value of keris dress can be likened to the value of a man's clothing, it has no spiritual nor esoteric value at all, it does not tell you anything about the character of the keris that it covers, just as clothes do not tell you about the character of the man who is wearing them.

The keris itself, ie, the blade, holds all the spiritual, esoteric & cultural value. It represents the male principle & should be given the respect that would be given to a man.

Thus, when a keris blade is in poor repair, it should be respected by carrying out whatever work is necessary to bring it back to a good condition, if that is possible. Where it is not possible to bring a keris blade back into good condition, the ideal approach would be to incorporate it into a new keris.

All the dress has no spiritual value at all. The wrongko represents the female principle, & this relationship of male : female , keris : wrongko, is often used in philosophical ways and most particularly in wedding speeches.

Some keris will have more than a single wrongko, this applies particularly to keris that have a high cultural value within a family or kinship group. The appropriate wrongko is used for dress according to the occasion. The position of the wrongko to the keris can be thought of as similar to the position of a wife to her husband: a man can have many women, but a limited number of official wives, the official wives can be likened to the wrongko that has been made for the keris, the unofficial wives can be likened to the selirs who may be an adornment for the man, but who do not have the same status as a wife.

Dress can be upgraded or down graded dependent upon the economic situation of the custodian. At the present time a lot of gold & suasa pendoks are being sold as scrap gold, because of the way that gold prices have skyrocketted. Suasa can have a gold content that varies between 4ct & about 14ct.

To permit a keris to remain in dress that has deteriorated is an action that indicates that the custodian has little or no respect for the keris itself, nor for its previous custodians, nor for its maker. In simple terms, it is an insult.

It has been driven into me by a number of people that as a custodian of keris, it is my duty, my obligation, to try to bring any keris of which I have custody, to a condition where others in the future will wish to preserve that keris. This attitude is a socio-cultural Javanese attitude.

The frequently encountered attitude of out-of-culture keris collectors is that as a historic object a keris should be preserved rather than restored. This is the attitude of a collector of antiques, somebody who has a very different set of values to those of a Javanese person who is a part of established Javanese culture.

If we collect a cultural icon, any cultural icon, it is my belief that we should try our best to observe the socio-cultural values attached to that icon within its culture of origin.

The keris is a socio-cultural icon.

[Jayaningkurnia]

If I may add to Alan’s response re: giving keris a redress with a personal anecdote. For context I am of Javanese-heritage (Jogja) but grew up in Singapore and only recently reconnecting with the Javanese culture and the tosan aji world.

Some time ago I had the good fortune of acquiring a keris made by Empu Djeno, an esteemed ‘kamardikan’ keris-maker from Jogja. The blade was in decent condition (thin surface rust - I had it cleaned and lightly restained to bring out the pamor), but sheathe was of such material, working and condition that I thought to be improper to the keris (or at least my perceived value of it).

It was unthinkable for me not to commission a new warangka and pendok, and find suitable deder (handle) and mendak for the keris, especially if I have the opportunity/means to do so. Based on the values taught to me by family elders and ‘senior collectors’, it is a mark of respect and tribute to the keris and its maker. I had the old warangka cleaned and repolished to be kept separately (perhaps to house other keris if needed).

An alternative analogy on the relationship between sheathe and the keris is like a frame to a painting: it should be respectful to the painting and its painter, ideally reflecting the period and the “artist intention” if possible. Perhaps it is even akin to a sacred relic and its reliquary (I happened to be a Catholic so this is the nearest analogy I can think of to highlight the esoteric value of a keris to a Javanese, especially of old). The frame and reliquary as a standalone item will never be valued as much as the painting or sacred relic, no matter how expensive the material or the craftsmanship - since by nature they are ancillary and can always be replaced or upgraded as the need arise).